Nature's Numbers

Nature's Numbers PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786723920
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Get Book

Book Description
"It appears to us that the universe is structured in a deeply mathematical way. Falling bodies fall with predictable accelerations. Eclipses can be accurately forecast centuries in advance. Nuclear power plants generate electricity according to well-known formulas. But those examples are the tip of the iceberg. In Nature's Numbers, Ian Stewart presents many more, each charming in its own way.. Stewart admirably captures compelling and accessible mathematical ideas along with the pleasure of thinking of them. He writes with clarity and precision. Those who enjoy this sort of thing will love this book."—Los Angeles Times

Nature's Numbers

Nature's Numbers PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786723920
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Get Book

Book Description
"It appears to us that the universe is structured in a deeply mathematical way. Falling bodies fall with predictable accelerations. Eclipses can be accurately forecast centuries in advance. Nuclear power plants generate electricity according to well-known formulas. But those examples are the tip of the iceberg. In Nature's Numbers, Ian Stewart presents many more, each charming in its own way.. Stewart admirably captures compelling and accessible mathematical ideas along with the pleasure of thinking of them. He writes with clarity and precision. Those who enjoy this sort of thing will love this book."—Los Angeles Times

Nature's Numbers

Nature's Numbers PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309173388
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book

Book Description
In order to really see the forest, what's the best way to count the trees? Understanding how the economy interacts with the environment has important implications for policy, regulatory, and business decisions. How should our national economic accounts recognize the increasing interest in and importance of the environment? Nature's Numbers responds to concerns about how the United States should make these measurements. The book recommends how to incorporate environmental and other non-market measures into the nation's income and product accounts. The panel explores alternative approaches to environmental accounting, including those used in other countries, and addresses thorny issues such as how to measure the stocks of natural resources and how to value non-market activities and assets. Specific applications to subsoil minerals, forests, and clean air show how the general principles can be applied. The analysis and insights provided in this book will be of interest to economists, policymakers, environmental advocates, economics faculty, businesses based on natural resources, and managers concerned with the role of the environment in our economic affairs.

The Beauty of Numbers in Nature

The Beauty of Numbers in Nature PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781782404712
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book

Book Description
Think of a zebra's stripes, the complexities of a spider's web, the uniformity of desert dunes, or the spirals in a sunflower head ... think of a snowflake. The Beauty of Numbers in Nature shows how life on Earth forms the principles of mathematics. Starting with the simplest patterns, each chapter looks at a different kind of patterning system and the mathematics that underlies it. In doing so the book also uncovers some universal patterns, both in nature and man-made, from the basic geometry of ancient Greece to the visually startling fractals that we are familiar with today. Elegantly illustrated, The Beauty of Numbers in Nature is an illuminating and engaging vision of how the apparently cold laws of mathematics find expression in the beauty of nature.

Growing Patterns

Growing Patterns PDF Author: Sarah C. Campbell
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
ISBN: 1635924898
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34

Get Book

Book Description
ALSC Notable Children's Book A wonderful introduction to one of the most beautiful connections between mathematics and the natural world–the Fibonacci sequence–through a series of stunning nature photographs. Discover the biggest mathematical mystery in nature—Fibonacci numbers! Named after a famous mathematician, the number pattern is simple and starts with: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. Each number in the sequence comes from adding the two numbers before it. What's the mystery? The pattern crops up in the most unexpected places. You'll find it in the disk of a sunflower, the skin of a pineapple, and the spiral of a nautilus shell. This book brings math alive, celebrates science, and will inspire kids to see nature through new eyes.

Nature's Numbers

Nature's Numbers PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780753805305
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book

Book Description
A mathematical sightseeing tour of the natural world from the author of THE MAGICAL MAZE Why do many flowers have five or eight petals, but very few six or seven? Why do snowflakes have sixfold symmetry? Why do tigers have stripes but leopards have spots? Mathematics is to nature as Sherlock Holmes is to evidence. Mathematics can look at a single snowflake and deduce the atomic geometry of its crystals; it can start with a violin string and uncover the existence of radio waves. And mathematics still has the power to open our eyes to new and unsuspected regularities - the secret structure of a cloud or the hidden rhythms of the weather. There are patterns in the world we are now seeing for the first time - patterns at the frontier of science, yet patterns so simple that anybody can see them once they know where to look.

Do Dice Play God?

Do Dice Play God? PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 178283401X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book

Book Description
Uncertainty is everywhere. It lurks in every consideration of the future - the weather, the economy, the sex of an unborn child - even quantities we think that we know such as populations or the transit of the planets contain the possibility of error. It's no wonder that, throughout that history, we have attempted to produce rigidly defined areas of uncertainty - we prefer the surprise party to the surprise asteroid. We began our quest to make certain an uncertain world by reading omens in livers, tea leaves, and the stars. However, over the centuries, driven by curiosity, competition, and a desire be better gamblers, pioneering mathematicians and scientists began to reduce wild uncertainties to tame distributions of probability and statistical inferences. But, even as unknown unknowns became known unknowns, our pessimism made us believe that some problems were unsolvable and our intuition misled us. Worse, as we realized how omnipresent and varied uncertainty is, we encountered chaos, quantum mechanics, and the limitations of our predictive power. Bestselling author Professor Ian Stewart explores the history and mathematics of uncertainty. Touching on gambling, probability, statistics, financial and weather forecasts, censuses, medical studies, chaos, quantum physics, and climate, he makes one thing clear: a reasonable probability is the only certainty.

What Shape is a Snowflake?

What Shape is a Snowflake? PDF Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780297607236
Category : Mathematics in nature
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book

Book Description
An enlightening vision of how the laws of mathematics find organic expression in the beauty and patterns of nature, written by an acclaimed mathematician and science writer.

Know Your Numbers: Nature

Know Your Numbers: Nature PDF Author: Mary Elizabeth Salzmann
Publisher: ABDO
ISBN: 1629686093
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 26

Get Book

Book Description
Teach kids to count and read at the same time! Know Your Numbers: Nature introduces early readers to numbers by paring them with simple sentences about nature. Beautiful photos and graphics tie the written, numeral, and visual forms of each number together. For instance, one page has a picture of 16 seashells, a sentence about them, and four different ways to see the number sixteen. Help early learners gain reading practice and counting skills while building an interest in numbers. Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Sandcastle is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Eco-Mathematics Education

Eco-Mathematics Education PDF Author: Nataly Chesky
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004466800
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Get Book

Book Description
Eco-Mathematics Education strives to show how everyone can experience the embedded connection between mathematics and the natural world. The authors’ sincere hope is that by doing so, we can radically change the way we come to understand mathematics, as well as humanity’s place in the ecosystem. The book hopes to accomplish this by providing in-depth lesson plans and resources for educators and anyone interested in teaching and learning mathematics through an ecological aesthetic perspective. All lessons are based on the inquiry method of teaching, aligned to standards, incorporate art projects inspired by famous artists, and utilize recycled and/or natural materials as much as possible.

Numbers in Nature

Numbers in Nature PDF Author: Jennifer Marino Walters
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781634403023
Category : Counting
Languages : en
Pages : 24

Get Book

Book Description
The number of points on a starfish or on a snowflake, the number of moons in the night sky. Let's count how many surprises nature has all around us.